Community Health Committee Gives Support for Reproductive Justice Fund
Published on February 28, 2025
Community Health Committee Moves Forward with Critical Support for Reproductive Justice Fund
SAN ANTONIO (February 28, 2025) – Today, the Community Health Committee approved to move forward to full Council consideration an additional $100,000 toward downstream services for the Reproductive Justice Fund. The funding request emerged from a November 2024 memo after the Reproductive Justice Fund did not award funding for travel support services.
“Since 2022, we have diligently worked to secure women’s rights to healthcare through our Affirming an Individuals’ Right to Healthcare resolution and the Reproductive Justice Fund in 2023,” District 5 Councilmember Teri Castillo said. “Now this vital fund, advocated by organizations on the frontlines supporting residents with the healthcare they need, will head to the full City Council.”
“Empowering women to advocate for their own medical decisions is one way city leaders can move the community forward,” said District 3 Councilmember Phyllis Viagran. “In 2022 Councilmember Castillo began the work to ensure that every woman has the support and resources she needs to make informed choices about her body and her health. I am proud to work beside her. The vote today is the right action to make powerful changes.”
“Access to comprehensive healthcare, including reproductive care, is fundamental to the well-being of our communities,” District 1 Councilmember Dr. Sukh Kaur said. “The additional funding for the Reproductive Justice Fund is a crucial step in ensuring that women have the support they need to make their own medical decisions. District 1 stands firmly in support of expanding resources that empower people to take control of their health, and we look forward to seeing this effort moving forward.”
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs’ decision, which overruled 50 years of legal precedent of the Roe v. Wade decision, the District 5 Office penned a resolution Affirming an Individuals’ Right to Healthcare. The resolution was passed in a special meeting convened by Mayor Ron Nirenberg on August 2, 2022. After passage of the resolution, Councilmember Teri Castillo introduced the Reproductive Justice Fund as a budget amendment in the 2023 Fiscal Year Budget.
After the Dobbs’ decision, Texas House Bill 1280 went into effect on August 25, 2022, effectively banning abortion care services in Texas. The introduction of restrictive measures has resulted in a spike in sepsis rates during pregnancy to 4.9 percent, according to a ProPublica analysis. According to the Guttmacher Institute, more than 35,000 patients left Texas to obtain an abortion in 2023. In 2023, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ruled Texas’s abortion ban law does not apply outside of the state.